Riddles
Hell and Punishment
Speaker (not author)
Terms
Mythology
100
An kenning describes these objects as "steel hail."
What are arrows?
100
In Inferno, hell is composed of this number of circles:
9.
100
An I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe too. I'll speak in a monstrous little voice: "Thisne, Thisne!" "Ah, Pyramus, my lover dear! Thy Thisbe dear, and Lady Dear!"
Who is Bottom?
100
This is the rhyme scheme of terza rima.
What is aba, bcb, cdc ...
100
This beautiful wife of Menelaus and lover of Paris is said to have caused the Trojan war.
Who is Helen of Troy?
200
Adults go to this "punishment room" with water but nothing to eat. They lock the door and suffer the noises alone. No one is exempt and everyone's pain has a different smell.
What is the bathroom?
200
Unbaptized babies are located here:
What is limbo?
200
I am your spaniel; and ... the more you beat me I will fawn on you. Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you.
Who is Helena?
200
In this dramatic convention, a character is alone onstage but delivers his or her thoughts aloud.
What is a soliloquy?
200
Although Homer represents this character as a "hero" and his title protagonist, Dante represents him as a conniver and deceiver.
Who is Odysseus/Ulysses?
300
According to Chaucer, what do all women want?
What is mastery/their own will.
300
Meaning "evil ditches," this is the name for the circle of hell containing ten varieties of fradulent behaviors.
What is Malebolge?
300
Unhappy Dido, so they told me truly that your own hand had brought you death. Was I--Alas!--the cause? I swear by all the stars, by the world above, by everything held sacred here under the earth, unwillingly, O queen, I left your kingdom. But the gods' commands ... compelled me on."
Who is Aeneas?
300
This work by Ovid focuses on the transformation of mythological characters into various shapes and forms.
What is metamorphoses?
300
Aeneas is able to enter the underworld only because he possesses this object:
What is the golden bough?
400
It is "momentary as a sound, swift as a shadow, short as any dream, brief as the lightning in the collied night ..."
What is (the course of true) love?
400
Visual Daily Double:
Though the man in this sculpture might look upset now, he'll get the chance to "chew out" his oppressor in Inferno.
400
This "character" said, "Abandon all hope, you who enter here."
What is the inscription to the gate to hell?
400
In Inferno, this group is named after the sorcerer of Samaria who attempted to buy the power of the Holy Spirit from the apostles with money.
What are simoniacs? (Simon Magus)
400
In Inferno, the suicides are transformed into trees who are tormented by these filthy birds:
What are harpies?
500
In Dante's Inferno, this initially un-named character is "she who broke faith with the ashes of Sichaeus and slew herself for love," and next to her is "wanton Cleopatra."
Who is Dido (canto V)?
500
In The Aeneid, on Aeneas's right is the path to Elysium and paradise, but on the left is the road to this place for the wicked:
What is Tartarus?
500
Audio daily double. (Remember to turn off screen.)
What author wrote the following:
500
The medieval manner of Biblical interpretation looked four the "fourfold meaning" in a Biblical text. Name 3 out of 4.
What is literal, allegorical, tropological/moral, anagogical?
500
In The Aeneid, this river of forgetfulness enables souls to forget the afterlife as preparation for their re-incarnation.
What is the Lethe?
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